peace that transportation has been formative and
controlling in our national life. One of the early evidences of the
growth of transportation in this country, and therefore of our
national progress, was the act of connecting the Great Lakes by the
Erie Canal with the Hudson River.

The largest number of railroad tracks paralleling any navigable stream
follows to-day the line of the Hudson. There are six much of the
way--four tracks on one side and two on the other. I am going to make
that historical line of water and rail transportation the basis for a
little study with you, to see what the normal development of
transportation is, and whether, as I believe, the particular form that
concerns you is a natural outgrowth of all that has gone before. If it
is so it is here to stay. If in the process of transportation
evolution we have reached the normal use of the highway, together with
the waterway and the railway, then you are doing a constructive work
for your country. But if that work is not normal, if you are trying to
impose upon the body politic something strange and artificial, then
your work will, and ought to, fail.

The transportation system of the United States is not a unity. It can
not be run on what we may call unitarian lines. It is a trinity, and
has to be run on trinitarian lines. You must link up railways and
waterways and highways to get a perfect transportation system for this
country. If there were no railroads we would have little
transportation. If there were no waterways there would be insufficient
transportation. If we had an abundance of railways and waterways and
lacked the use of highways, we should have imperfect transportation.
We should fail to bring it to every man's door, and it must be brought
to every man's door to be perfect.

The early transportation in the Hudson River Valley was by sloop. The
history of the river is full of the traditions from the old sloop
days, when it was sometimes five and sometimes nine days from New York
to Albany by water. The river was just as navigable then as it is now;
the difference lies in the tool that was used. Now in that use of the
fit tool for the route lies the whole truth in transportation, and yet
so far as I know the full bearing of the application of the tool to
the job is almost new to our discussions of the several phases of
transportation. In due time comes Robert Fulton and the _Clermont_
begins to flap flap her weary 36 hours from New Yor